This is what she had for dinner...Yep, that's a straw in the empty ketchup bottle. Forget the burger, hold the bun, no cheese please. I'll just take the condiments thankyouverymuch.

Mmmm ketchup.

I remember stressing over stuff like this when I had 1 or 2 kids. Will they get sick if all they eat is ketchup and banana fumes? Should I call the doctor? How can I get them to eat a balanced diet? Somewhere along the line, however, my attitude changed. You want to go all day and eat nothing but a piece of cheese, 2 grapes (with no skin, of course), a teaspoon of milk and a cotton ball? Knock yourself out. Less cooking for me.

Hmmm, that sounds somewhat familiar. Glad you aren't stressing over it either.

Today's lunch for Little Miss? Half an avocado and a single cherry tomato. Of course the fact that this is all she wanted to eat (turning down spaghetti, Mac & Cheese, turkey, and ham) and it's all vegetable is actually a bit MORE concerning to me!

Isn't it funny how relaxed we get about stuff the more kids we have. Last year, when I was eight months pregnant with my forth child, I went to a birthday party with my four year old and two two year olds.(they are twins this isn't a typo) All of the other moms there had only one child or one child and an infant. I laughed to myself and wondered what they thought of me as I watched my children with cake smeared all over their faces and everything else and watched them wipe their child's mouth after every bite. I could go on and on about things like this where I have really loosened up out of sheer necessity. A friend recently asked me about potty training methods and honestly my plan is simple - get them out of diapers before kindergarten. Love your blog and check it often. Should be keeping one of my own but I'm afraid someone would actually read it.

That's hysterical. Thank you for letting me know. I am on kid #1 and sometimes she doesn't want to eat. She's only 11 months old, so I have a ways to go before the condiment thing, but still...knowing is half the battle.

I'm glad my dd isn't the only one that eats like that. Breakfast today was melted butter licked off her toast, snack was 2 goldfish cracker heads - she refuses to eat the tails. Lunch @ preschool was a bite of a sandwich,yes - one (1) bite. and dinner was a frozen pierogi.

If I could get the rest of my family to eat the same way, my grocery bill would only be like $10/month!

I used to fret about this kind of stuff, too, but then I figured they'll get what their bodies need; i.e. when they get hungry enough, they'll eat! Brooklyn seems healthy enough - I wouldn't worry. She's obviously good on licopene!

Thank you for posting that! My son is almost 2 and my husband and I have been arguing about his diet for a week now. I am so happy to see that it's a normal toddler thing. Now if only I could get my husband to listen to me when I tell him that...

OMG... That is too funny. My husband needs to see this... I accuse him of having food with his ketchup. But I can relate to the tortilla with butter and cinnamon.... mmmmmmm..... I add a little sugar to mine tho......

This is totally cracking me up, only because I could totally see my daughter doing this! She loves condiments - ketchup, sour cream, salad dressing...by themselves. She has always just dipped her finger in. I tried to stop her from doing it in the beginning. Then I decided it was a losing battle not worth the fight. So I just don't make a big deal about it. I'm so glad mine isn't the only one who does this!

I would be so happy if my 3 year old would eat that much!He won't eat ketchup because he's on some sort of a diet where he only eats food with bland colors (milk, bread, spaghetti noodles, chips)Except for Cheetos. He loves Cheetos.

I had a doctor tell me that no child had ever starved themselves to death and they would eat when they got hungry enough. As long as they weren't losing weight, he didn't care what they ate or how much or when. It made my life much easier!!

We go in spurts here, mostly led by my older one. Currently it's pasta with butter, eggs, and pepperoni sandwiches. I developed a "whatever" approach a LONG time ago. You tend to do that with a kid who has OCD tendencies about food and weird texture issues. When my oldest was 4 he decided one day he just was not going to eat melted cheese. No matter that pizza and grilled cheese had been his favorite foods up until that point. That lasted almost a year. I think that's the weirdest food refusal so far - no melted cheese.

When my husband is deployed I don't usually cook. There's plenty of mac and cheese, peanut butter, fresh fruits and veggies to keep us going for the time that he's gone. There's just to much to do to cook a full meal every night! On a particularly bad night (missing my husband, church function, packing for yet ANOTHER move) I let the kids have cookies for dinner. Of course as they were finishing up the door bell rang. It was a very good friend who had just had her first baby. She gave me that look that says, "How on earth can you feed your precious babies cookies for dinner!?" Little does she know that there WILL be one day when cookies seem like a completely viable choice for dinner.

Dawn - you have 18 kids or so, so this is more for your commenters:When I was little (I'm 47 now) my mom didn't have a pediatrician - we had a family GP. Mom was worried 'cause all I wanted to eat was hot dogs: for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. No buns, no condiments, no french fries - nothin' but dogs!Dr. O. said, "Go ahead and feed her hot dogs. She'll eat them for a few days and then she'll want something else." And I did.And then when I was, oh, 25 or so, I went to my mom's cardiologist (we used him as a GP) and he told me to trust my body: when I needed some Vitamin C, I'd eat an orange. When I needed some Vitamin D I'd drink a glass of milk. If I had an upset stomach and craved something weird, like peanut butter and raisins on multi-grain, the odds were that it wouldn't make me sick: my body wouldn't crave it if I couldn't handle it.I've lived by those words and it's done me well!

Dawn,I LOVE your blog and have been reading for awhile but this is my first comment ... I was so glad to read this post. I only have ONE child and this eating thing is by far the most stressful part of being a mom (okay, maybe not the most stressful, but it is a daily struggle :-)). My son (2 1/2 yrs. old) eats buttered noodles and ... well, that's about it. I TRY to give him balanced meals but he refuses to eat it. I have recently just gave up and decided that if he is hungry he will eat. It is good to know that there are others out there like him -- and they have survived :-) Thanks for the daily laughs!!!

Thanks for posting this - I feel much better, knowing that I'm not the only mom out there whose toddler thinks that condiments are appropriate substitutes for actual food. We had Chinese food the other night, and after Pete finished his Peking Ravioli (aka Potstickers, depending on your region), he demanded more sauce. Not more ravioli, JUST the sauce, which he proceded to drink from his bowl. Yarghh.

this is my first time here. and whether or not this post was from last year...it doesn't matter...because i just threw up in my mouth. ketchup from a straw...that's as gross as watching a cat throw up a fur ball!good luck. i guess i should be thankful that my kids will at least eat something with their copious amounts of ketchup!!

Hi Dawn, I bet there is a chapter in your book on picky eaters. What do you think about the moms who cook seperate meals for each kid? I have a few girlfriends that do that and when their kids( now 11 yr olds) are here they hardly eat anything. I say oh well, eat it or go home hungry. My son has always ate whatever I made for dinner because I never catered to him. Kristine in Michigan.

You gotta love people like the comment above me. Nothing pisses me off more than a backhanded slap w/ a tone of "poor baby" in it. Whatever. I only have one kid and I've had many a day that I'm not sure what he ate, if he ate at all as he refused all good offers and settled for his own menu of well...who knows? So, the slacker mom in me doesn't need anymore kids to prove the point. I'm good...or I'm bad. Yeah, you get it.

My 18 mth. old son is the same. Some days he will scarf down anything you put in front of him and somedays he just takes a bite or to. The thing that stresses me out the most is how much food is wasted. I will throw out whatever he doesn't eat, because if I ate all his refused food, I would be as big as a house!

My son eats ketchup on his apple slices, when he chooses to eat a "vegetable". Most of his meals are some form of cracker, something sweet, or some form of breakfast food. He's still growing, has plenty of energy, and doesn't get ill very often. He's either lucky, or giving his body what it needs, somehow. If the rest of us listened to our bodies better, we'd probably all be thin, energetic, and happier!

That is priceless! My son was the same way - he would only eat noodles and ketchup - which he called "noodles and 'teh-boh!" lol...now at almost 16 he proudly wears a shirt that says "I put ketchup on my ketchup". I'm sad to say this isn't a phase! Thanks for the great laugh today :o)

Ha ha! ketchup should be on the food pyramid! my two old eats it by the spoonfull... large spoonflls! she comes by it naturely though, i loved ketchup so much as a very young child that I asked my grandfather to put ketchup on the butterbeans when we planted them so that they would already have it on them when we picked them...

He he, I remember crying to our pediatrician because my oldest (then 2) only wanted to eat graham crackers and cheerios. His advice; "Don't fight it." And we don't. Food is set on the table, if they don't like it they don't have to eat it, just sit quietly at the table please. That would mean no whining, since getting any child to sit "quietly" at the table is a loosing battle.

This post made me laugh. I have a daughter who is now 6 that still has days like this (well not the sucking ketchup w/ a straw, but more the eating barely anything). Somehow she still grows - doesn't gain much weight - but grows and is healthy. Her brother is 9 and subsists on noodles and butter - has for years. Must work - he grew 2 inches this summer and is now 4'8".

Much like my son who lives on almost entirely a diet of crackers. If he eats what a 'normal' kid eats one day we figure that will be it for a couple of days aside from a few crackers! Of course I love your attitude Dawn!! I just love to know that I am, once again, not alone in my trials, tribulations and my attitude!!

That is great! I have 7 kids myself, and my #6 is a mad ketchup lover. We call it Baby Salsa, and he fills a bowl full and dips tortilla chips. We went thru a 24 oz bottle every three days for awhile there.

Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard I CRIED. My daughter can EAT. Seriously, she's 3 and had 3 eggs and 2 glasses of milk yesterday. But only when she wants to. But my niece...oh, this hits the nail right on the head for her!

Hehehe love it! I lived on cracker sandwiches as a kid! I was a meat and potatoes kid and if my "okie" dad and mom put a pot of beans and cornbread on the table my response was EWWWWWWW!! When all of us kids were old enough we were told if we didnt like it we could a. do without or b. make something for ourselves, they werent short order cooks lol. And so, the cracker sandwich was born at about age 7. Two pieces of bread, four crackers, dash of pepper (very gourmet!), smoosh it and eat!

Dawn, your kids crack me up. At least I don't feel like I'm the only crazy one....and ONLY a parent with more than one kid can think this is an acceptable diet....I have a 4 year old and two 3 year olds....some days they LIKE mac & cheese, some days they DONT. Some days they WANT ketchup on their chicken nuggets, and some days, when I put it on there ... they freak out and tell me thier "chickens" are ruined! Oh how horrible of a mother I am! LOL!! I think toddlers age 2-4 must be like mini-teenagers .... they can never make up their dang minds! (Smile!!)

okay, she's WAY too clean to have been sucking on that ketchup bottle like that- where are the pics of it in her hair? Behind her ears? Crusted in the nostrils? Or do you just want pics of CADEN like that- maybe girls are cleaner??? hahaAlways love your blog Dawn...I needed that laugh today! Thanks.

My kids are 12 & 14 and I still find myself saying at the dinner table "ketchup is condiment not a food group. I also say that about mustard, salad dressing, gravy, pickles and pickle juice. Well actually I just say "eewwwwhhh" about the juice.

My oldest is 3 and hardly eats. The first two years I fretted a little, but got over it. She's prepared me well for when the younger two get old enough to eat like birds. Thanks for reminding me she's not the only one!

My parents were "old school". My twin and I were made to sit at the table until we finished every morsel on our plates--sometimes we'd sit there for hours! Their plan failed...I am still tall and extremely thin. Now I eat WHAT I want, WHEN I want. I do make my kids eat regular meals but if they aren't hungry or don't like it...that is fine, too!! Parents don't realize the bad memories they are making when they battle over food.

I don't know if they'll get sick, but it make me sick watching it! Yuck. Of course, I don't care for ketchup too much. My dad will eat butter and mayonaise by the spoonful. Well, he used to before all his health issues.

This is totally my life. My kid likes spoonfuls of icing. She sneaks it when am not looking but then I find the obvious icing spoon under her bed. Don't even get me started on the food coloring fiasco I encountered awhile back!

Yes. We're on that diet. Last night he asked for chocolate milk. In a bowl. I gave it to him. He picked up the bowl and drank it and was perfectly happy. Didn't spill a drop (unlike what happens with a cup.)

OMG!!! the food stories I could tell.... from my oldest (now 14) eating nothing but raisins fo 3 days straight & then pooping nothing but raisins for days after... to my 2nd eating spoonfulls of mayo ( he & brooklynn would have been best buds)

My 3rd would only eat pretzel sticks for awhile... not twists... just sticks they taste better...

& the 4th went on a butter kick... she ate a whole stick while sitting in the fridge on daddys watch & then requested spoonfulls of the stuff with every meal... WEIRD!!!

Ha! For my friend's birthday one year, she and I went to a restaurant with her then two-year old daughter. Being vegetarian, Liz [the mom] settled on grilled cheese for K. What does K proceed to do? Dip her fries repeatedly in the ketchup, suck the ketchup off, and dip them back in again for more. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to eat anything else that night.

LOL- I remember when I was little and we would eat supper at church on Wednesday nights. I never liked the food so I would eat cracker and butter sandwiches! Yes, we got weird looks but I still grew up perfectly healthy (and much skinnier than I am now... might be time for a change in diet...)

I can see why this particular blog received so many comments, I think all of us moms out there have that worry about feeding our kids.. especially us new ones with just one and not you veterans with 6 kids! Now n days there is so much pressure to raising our kids the 'right' way. I always tell myself that when my mom drove us 3 kids to McDonalds I'm sure she didn't feel or even think for a second that she was the worst mom in the world. Thanks for bringing to a lot of people's attention that we can relax some, enjoy more, and let them (and us) eat cake..or ketchup. Thank you.

As long as there are healthy choices around, let her eat what she wants. Of my 9, 8 have my body type and one is overweight like hubby and his 3 brothers. TRhey were made to eat when it was meal time and finish everything. We feed the kids when they are hungry. If it is not a regular meal time, they eat a sandwich, leftovers, or some cereal. It works for me. I eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full.